VISUAL ARTS
Welcome to Heard’s Visual Arts gallery. In these posts you’ll find images of our client’s original art. Enjoy!
Each artist whose likeness and/or work is posted on our site has signed a Heard media release or verbally given permission for their likeness and/or the artistic work they created to be posted on this site and shared via our social media platforms.
Who is Renting your Head Space?
May 25, 2023: When Together We Bake requested an art class with Sharmila Karamchandani, we knew we’d have a winner! Sharmila’s art projects are always equal parts fun, insightful, and inspiring, and it has been several years since she had done a Heard project with them. And, it was even more magical that we had dared to hope!
Leading with the prompt “Who is renting your headspace?” Sharmila asked the 20 participants to think about the negative voices and positive voices inside our heads. How do we know if it is our voice, a cultural voice, a parental voice or the voice of peer pressure? How do we know what’s ours and what has been imposed on us?
Sharmila shared later (edited): “What an amazing expressive art session we had this morning!! [T]he participants dived deeper into their headspace and whatever no longer serves them good they were supposed to do a scan and throw all the bad renters out to make room for the good renters.
Happy Mother’s Day!
May 12, 2023: If you don’t follow our visual artist Sharmila Karamchandani on Facebook, you should! Aside from being a generous, beautiful human being, she writes the best Facebook posts about her work with us! They are so insightful and detailed that we admit to cut/pasting/minor-edit them here. Her Mother’s Day project with the Casa Chirilagua kids, done over the last two Fridays, was no exception and one of the sweetest posts out there:
Robot Helpers for Household Chores
April 28, 2023, Casa Chirilagua: Given a chance what kind of a robot would you want to help out with household chores?
Gratitude Amid Chaos
April 25, 2023, Arlington County Detention Facility (ACDF): Our art teacher Sharmila Karamchandani ran into some unplanned chaos today and yet she and the women in the general population of the ACDF still found plenty to be grateful for. Here’s a shortened version of Sharmila’s story:
Super Superpowers!
April 18, 2023: We’re just happy to be back at the Arlington County Detention Facility after three years of virtual – or no – classes! We knew Sharmila and her gentle art would be the perfect way to segue in with the general population. She wrote that she “…tasked [them] to create an entity that had special powers that was much needed in our world today…I am always amazed at what people create for this particular project. It’s so thoughtful…We had some very interesting conversations.
Quiz: Match the description with the superpower:
- Healing fly, a butterfly who senses any suffering and ailments with her special antennas anywhere in the world and can heal the person of any ailments they may have.
- Mother Earth, our ultimate super hero. With her powers of endurance and creation the woman needs to be honored as she is the source of all that exists.
- Blossom, who makes flowers and people blossom and bloom with her special powers.
- Guppy, who loves to give group hugs. She likes peace, harmony and love to spread with her special hugs.
- Food Man, who feeds the hungry and the homeless. His never ending faucet will provide you with any liquids be it juices or sodas. His side kick furnace can whip up any dish from any country for any amount of people.
- Rainbot, who has shower powers. She can do her special robotic rain dance and make it rain wherever and whenever needed, and can bless you with prosthetic limbs if you don’t have them (the creator’s friend lost a limb because of diabetes, hence Rainbot).
Cherry Blossoms and Dots
April 14, 2023: Our art teacher Sharmila Karamchandani summarized her Fun Friday at Casa Chirilagua so perfectly:
“Today at our Heard Fun Friday at Casa Chirilagua, kids from 1st to 3rd grades learned about dot painting and pointillism technique. We made cherry blossom trees and talked about their short-lived life. Then I asked the kids what were some of their experiences that were short-lived and yet they truly felt lot of joy and happiness with that experience.
Many tiny hands went up in the air. I was so surprised they were holding so much in their little hearts. A lot of them talked about their grandparents ( mainly grandmothers) who are no longer alive(almost half the class wanted to talk about them), one kid misses a baby bunny who he saw in his backyard but doesn’t know what happened to it, one of the volunteer shared how she had fishes and because of not knowing what was the right water to put them in, she accidentally put them in the wrong water and they died in two days. Some of them missed their pets who have died.
All of this happened so fast in about 45 minutes, we learned about a technique, some of them needed help with making their tree trunks, we spoke about difficult experiences and then cleaned up as most of them had white and pink paints on their body. They were all covered with paint. It could qualify as an immersive experience. .
Phew!! Each time I leave the workshop my heart is so filled with gratitude to experience and witness these young kids. Fridays are fun indeed!!“
Springtime at Casa Chirilagua!
March 31, 2023: In case you haven’t seen the daffodils and tulips out there (and don’t you just love daffodils on the highways?), it’s springtime! So of course our Sharmila Karamchandani had her Casa Chirilagua kids create their spring magic. We’re going to hope really hard that this means the official end of winter weather!
Art for the Holidays at Carpenter’s Shelter
March 27, 2023: We admit, rather sheepishly, that we’ve gotten a little behind in our online postings. How else could we excuse NOT posting these fabulous art projects that our art teacher (and paper art fanatic) Alison McHugh brought to the Carpenter’s Shelter? Not just once, mind you, but twice! And each time Alison cleverly wove in a holiday theme into the work. To wit:
It’s the new year (well it was…) and what better way to start off a new year than to create your very own word to get you through 2023? Admit it – you’re motivated just by reading what our clients created!
And then it was St. Patrick’s Day! You can’t let that slip by without a tribute, can you? How about a rainbow (get it?) scrapbook with a memory-themed quote on the front cover. Cute, isn’t it? And created by a sentimental 12-year-old. And she wasn’t the only one having fun. Alison told us, “That was the MOST fun I’ve had at the Carpenters Shelter!! [Her mother said], ‘We might not be here next month, but I’ll definitely bring her back for your class.’ She was as sweet as pie! The little boy LOVED trying to ‘drive me crazy’ (his words) and followed me out of the class, joking with me.”
Making History with Women’s History Month at Casa Chirilagua
March 3 and 10, 2023: It’s Women’s History (or Her-Story) Month, and we couldn’t wait to see what our creative visual arts teacher Sharmila Karamchandani would come up with for her Fun Fridays at Casa Chirilagua. And she went her usual waaaaaay above and beyond, as usual. These last two Fridays (she alternates weekly between grades 1-3 and 4-5), she challenged the kids to make stick puppets of women in their lives who had inspired them and they would like to honor. And the assortment they created! Some drew their grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and cousins. Others drew their teachers, two drew Helen Keller, and we even got Columbian singer Karol G. Very Fun Fridays indeed!
First, second, and third graders proudly showing off their creations. Helen Keller Mom and grandma, who is visiting this weekend.
Karol G. and mom Her sister, who really cares for her. Mom, who cares for and plays with him, and makes amazing papusas.
President for a Day
February 17, 2023: If you could be the president for a day, what would you do? What one-time executive order would you declare? Our teaching artist Sharmila Karamchandani asked our Casa Chirilagua kids that question, while ingeniously encouraging them to create a 3D log cabin, just like the one President Lincoln grew up in, out of index cards (how in the world does she come up with these amazing ideas)? Sharmila also discussed with them how President Lincoln’s parents were poor and he borrowed books to educate himself and with determination and hard work he became a United States president. Lesson? No matter your circumstances, you can do and become anything you want to!


